Metempsychosis
by Amatus
Summary: "You're - you're not Kairi."  "You're right.  I'm not." Definitely SoKai, but not too extreme.  Spoilers for BBS, just in case.


Dedicated to two of my friends; they know who they are, since I promised them I'd give them this one. I started writing it in their presence, and they've both been very supportive, even though I've ruined the entire Kingdom Hearts series for the younger one. . . . LOL.

"Transmigration: noun, the passage of a soul after death into another body." - the dictionary. As such, the Greek equivalent of "reincarnation," _metempsychosis_, roughly corresponds to the common English phrase "transmigration of the soul." - Wikipedia.

Completely and utterly SoKai. Spoilers for _Birth by Sleep_.

* * *

"Kairi!"

A humanoid shape stands in the crater where Sora and said girl had been positioned a moment before - at least, it seemed like a moment ago. He had opened his bleary eyes to see an entirely different angle of the crater, and Kairi hadn't been beside him anymore. Donald and Goofy weren't here to begin with, oddly enough.

Almost unconsciously his arms are desperately dragging his aching body to find her, to find out what happened. . . .

Yes, the girl _is_ Kairi, it has to be; her hair lays the same way, and her stature is identical. But Kairi doesn't look for the source of his voice and simply stares at the dry rock bed below her. "Kairi?"

No movement. The wind echoes eerily here in the Keyblade Graveyard, like someone howling in agony. So many people have suffered here that Sora wouldn't have been surprised if that was true. . . but there's no time to dwell on that. His friend had been in danger from someone, and whoever it was had succeeded in separating them for the moment.

"Kairi, are you all right? Answer me!" He doesn't mean to let his voice catch. Riku's told him time after time that his open heart is half the reason she's going to constantly be in danger, but right now she's acting too strange, too _calm_ for the situation they were just in . . . whatever it was. Sora can't remember yet. He gives up on her answer before his cry stops echoing and forces himself up on one knee, then rises and jumps into the crater.

He's slid/ran/fallen down the slope and is practically at the bottom when he sees it.

"Kairi" doesn't have her trademark fiery hair. She has black.

His clumsy feet trip over themselves about now, only correcting the loss of balance when he's right in front of her. Sora barely notices, though, because some_thing_ is _pulling_ itself out of his skin. But it is still his hand that reaches out for hers.

"Sh-Xion?" Roxas's voice inquires.

Everything – everyone – in Sora suddenly regrets saying anything; the girl's shoulders tremble. "Kairi, I'm sorry, I'm sorry! What happened?"

Then the blood in Sora's veins stops circulating.

Kairi is chuckling, her voice deepening and ringing like it was made of a thousand. . . . But her voice is not alone.

Sora hears his own, too.

"You're – you're not Kairi," he chokes, and he stumbles back a few steps in horror. That small instinct probably saves his life.

Because as his chance to recover disappears, "Kairi's" arm swings with weapon in hand, only it isn't hers; no flowers decorate the teeth. He would call it sheer luck that his Keyblade was summoned, but Sora doesn't believe that for an instant; it "knows" the truth that he hasn't figured out.

From what little he can see of it, Sora can only grasp that the Keyblade she wields is . . . unique, strange even, and horribly beautiful in the way that all are, but his examination ends as "Kairi's" arms _push_ toward him.

Kairi may be a chosen of the Keyblade, and she may have gotten stronger, but she's not _this_ strong.

She laughs again, Sora's tones twisting around Kairi's. "You're right," she says, and she raises her head to meet his eyes with her own, amber irises. "I'm not."

With that she gives a final push that has the force to slide him back. Unfortunately for her, he's able to recover quickly this time and stay upright.

The Keyblade in her hands, however, holds him in place. The hilt is formed by two Kingdom Keys in an "X" as a blade emerges from between them. As testament to "Kairi's" new-found strength, though it appears to weight a ton, she holds it in front of her as if it were made of cloud; the shimmer of the metal as it moves would certainly make it seem so.

Whatever is in control of Kairi laughs for a third time. "Do you like this, Sora?" it giggles, turning it this way and that to admire the sheen. "It's taken me over twelve years to forge the χ-blade, but at last . . . at last, my Master and I will open Kingdom Hearts!"

Sora gasps, but then there's a gut-wrenching pain coming from his heart that he remembers from when Kairi's heart responded in Hollow Bastion – _but it isn't_ at the same time; this is something _using_ him, using his mouth. . . .

"Vanitas," Ventus breathes, and then he fades back into Sora.

Vanitas-Kairi cackling for a fourth time would be irksome if it wasn't heartbreaking to hear. "Ah, so _that's_ where Ventus's heart disappeared to! Mine merely faded back into Darkness, but I managed to create the body I needed from it, thanks to my Master."

The unholy _fusion_ begins circling Sora _predatorily._ "Y'know, I never would have thought of using a Princess of Heart to bring about the Keyblade. Too weak and defenseless for me to use when the process was complete. Luckily for me, Kairi touched Aqua's blade years ago, and Riku decided to train her like a true wielder." Vanitas's _insane_ grin covers _Kairi's_ face. "My next best solution was created so easily."

"Kairi . . ." Sora's _fingers are_ itching_ to reach_ out_ and grab_ her _hand for_ a _sign of_ life – _her_ life – but _it's pointless_ and _he knows_ it. "Come on, you have to fight this!"

_"So do you," Ventus_ whispers.

"Oh, but if she does, she'll be gone _forever_," _Vanitas-Kairi taunts._ "I suppose I should put you out of your misery before you have to watch that . . . like it'll ever happen. Hm."_ She gazes over the χ-blade,clearly disappointed for some reason, then whips her head away from it, and her arm lashes out in Sora's direction –_

_

* * *

_

Sora can't get enough air in his lungs when he comes around.

"S'ra?" a feminine voice slurs. "Wha's 'a matter? C'nt be time t'get up yet. . . ."

"K-Kairi?" His voice still quivers, but the dream, no matter how vivid, is over; the fabric underneath his fingers – damp with sweat and wrinkled where his hands lie, as if he had been gripping them – proves it.

"Yeah? What?"

The unvarying _whirs_ of the Gummi ship hum in his ears as he tries to even his breathing. It's difficult – every few seconds Vanitas's eyes bore into his from the darkness that his own aren't adjusting to, and he has to start all over again. The fact that his heart tends to flutter every time this happens makes it all the more impossible.

"Hey . . ." she whispers. Somewhere to his left sheets are sliding around on one of the narrow, worn-out mattresses the ship is furnished with, and then the soft tapping of bare feet replaces the noisy cloth. "Sora?" Kairi's voice is definitely closer to him. "What's wrong?"

Oh, God, she's right next to him. . . . Quite unnecessarily he blinks, though the Unversed's eyes are still glaring from what he _thinks_ is the corner of the back room, but he can never really be prepared for Kairi's fingertips grazing his shoulder.

Vanitas's expressive orbs light up with cruel laughter.

"Nightmare," he coughs, but then Kairi makes it even tougher on him by sliding her hand down his arm to grasp his hand. "I'm fine – I think – I think Ventus's heart is starting to, um . . ."

"Remember what happened to him?" Kairi suggests.

Sora nods, assuming that she can see the motion. Whether she could or not, her mass crouches beside him so that she is level with him. "Something like that, but it was different. It was like . . . like a combination. Like, I don't know, _his_ past repeating in _my_ life, but . . ." His mouth won't form the words, because Kairi is a smart girl, and he knows that whatever he says will imply the truth, that it was _her_ he had seen, and she'll figure it out.

This time the memory of Vanitas isn't so shocking that his breath catches, but his heart still lurches, causing his grip around her fingers to tighten. Kairi definitely notices, and she squeezes back. "Yen Sid did mention something like this could happen," she reminds him softly. "It was just a dream."

"Yeah," he whispers back, "I know. Doesn't mean I believe it." Doesn't mean he believes it _couldn't_ happen.

They sit – well, _he_ sits, _she_ squats – in silence for a while, he unable to finish, she unable to coerce him into finishing. Subconsciously, her thumb strokes the side of his hand, back and forth, back and forth. . . .

"Well," Kairi starts, "if you're alright, then you probably should try to get back to sleep. Never know what tomorrow brings." His body, however, disagrees; when she tries to pull her hand away, he obstinately holds on tighter.

Kairi stands there for a moment – Sora thinks she's turned in his direction, but there's no light on anywhere in the Gummi ship for him to see by – then she sighs and sits on the bed next to him. "_Are_ you alright, Sora?"

He doesn't answer her right away. Her features can't be seen clearly, but he can remember them all too well from all the days spent on the beach together: the gentle curve of her mouth; the straight locks of dark, dark red hair framing her face; her unblemished pale skin that has no trace of a tan; her deep, ocean-blue eyes –

Amber color appears in place of the sea, and he sees the gray-black hair of the fusion against the dull earthy tones of the Keyblade Graveyard again. . . .

Kairi makes no sound when he wraps his arms around her, as if she had been expecting it; her body stays relaxed, and she returns the embrace quickly enough, caressing his back with her hand as she had with her thumb on his hand only a few minutes before. "_This_ is real," she murmurs in his ear, and he chuckles once. She isn't lying; that compact frame of hers is solid and unchanging, and it smells of Kairi and not of Darkness.

Sora realizes that they couldn't have remained like this for long, but it feels like that moment could have lasted anywhere from a few minutes to a few _years_. Now that she's _here_, face lying on his chest and breath dancing over his collarbone, he doesn't want her to slip away like she's done too many times. This is all he's ever wanted – all he's fought for. Nothing in Heaven or Hell, nothing in the Light or the Dark, could separate them while they're together.

He won't _let_ anything pull them apart.

Eventually, however, she yawns, and he hears it as much as she tries to hide it. "You should probably be in bed," he says into her hair. "I'm fine."

"As fine as you can be, anyway," Kairi remarks, and with matching grins and a silent, mutual agreement, they pull away simultaneously.

"Hey, I'm not crazy!"

"Define 'not crazy.'"

". . . Yeah, whatever. . . . Hey, Kairi?"

"Hm?" She's across the room by now, and her sheets rustle as she settles in for the remainder of the night.

". . . Thanks for that. I . . ."

"Was nothin'," she replies, then her breath noticeably slows down as she falls asleep. Sora doesn't remember it, but he follows suit not long after.

* * *

_He will remember the dream, but he will not dwell on it until he returns to the Graveyard, when all of Hell will break free and reveal itself. . . ._

* * *

I had a lot of trouble with the last half of this in places; I wanted it to be cute-_ish_, but apparently I'm not good at that. Ha,ha. I'm up for any suggestions there.

**Please review if you want or feel like you need to. I appreciate it ever so much! Happy "birthday" to Kels-'n'-Jo!**


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